Courtship (3.0)
Courtship is an upcoming game mechanic intended to replace social arena encounters. In its place, the player may encounter dispersal wolves in the wilderness whilst exploring. These may be traveling alone, in pairs or as a group of up to three wolves, with multiples being siblings. How the player interacts with these wolves can either increase or decrease interest in them potentially accepting or rejecting the player as their mate. Locations With Amethyst Mountain being the first episode, dispersal wolves may be more abundant within this game world. Locating Dispersal wolves placeholder Personalities As of 3.0 and above, dispersal wolves and mates now possess distinct personality traits. These do affect many different aspects of their behavior as well as their interaction with the world, other NPCs and the pack. Players can attempt to learn a dispersal wolf's traits by observing their actions. Interfaces With this new system comes a new interface that displays information about the wolf while the player is looking at it. In addition to a wolf's coat texture sample, natal (birth) pack, sex and age being shown, some new information is available that did not exist in previous versions. Overhead icons Focus A yellow downward-facing arrow is used to show which wolf the player's avatar is currently looking at. This will determine which wolf's information is displayed in the small information window. The closest wolf takes priority above others. Bonding progress A heart indicator is always displayed above courting dispersal wolves and shown while an individual is in focus. This represents bonding progress with each dispersal wolf in the player's vicinity. Once this indicator has been filled to 100%, the dispersal wolf is established as the player's mate from that moment on. Gray wolves are monogamous. This means the player may only have one mate at any given time. Diversity rating Diversity is displayed as a rating-based system indicated by the five star icons. The lower the rating, the less ideal it is as a mate. This rating is determined based on relation to the player's wolf or due to genetics. The K-locus gene, most prominent in black wolves, is another factor in the genetics rating category. A lower rating indicates less desirability due to poorer genetics or a closer blood relation to the player. A higher rating indicates more desirability due to better genetics or being of farther or no blood relation to the player. It is believed that diversity may also affect litter sizes. Interactions Ulike the old social arena, which took a turn-based approach, courtship is a free-roaming realtime event with actions performed at the player's own leisure using emotes. placeholder Gallery Placeholder.png|Contributions to this gallery are welcome! You_Had_Me_at_Playbow|9-Aug-2018 teaser. Bonding_low_(3.0).png|A newly-encountered dispersal wolf. Bonding_medium_(3.0).png|A dispersal with a half-filled bonding meter. Bonding_high_(3.0).png|A dispersal-turned-mate who the player is now prompted to name. Trivia *Prior to 3.0.X, dispersal wolves and mates were very much alike, meaning they possessed no traits or personalities. *Permadeath for mates is a planned and upcoming feature for 3.0 albeit affected by difficulty.As the poll confirms: wolfquest.org • Fate of the Mate This marks the first time in WolfQuest history that a mate's death could be consequential in that it further increases the difficulty and decreases the odds of a litter's survival. **The player can repeat the bonding process with a different dispersal wolf after losing their mate. References Category:Interactive Category:Features Category:Game mechanics Category:NPCs Category:Single Player